6-17-2014 The End of Both Sides: Israel’s Occupation of the West Bank is Indefensible - Max Fisher Vox.com

http://www.vox.com/2014/6/17/5816022/three-kidnapped-teens-explain-israel-palestine-conflict


The occupation is now the primary driver of the Israel-Palestine conflict, it is illegal under international law, and it is a cause of tremendous human suffering. And for what?...

The conflict may be quieter today than in the past, but it is still active, still destroying lives and communities, still scarring these two societies, every day…

One of these escalations is happening right now. On Friday, Israel discovered that three of its citizens, teenagers studying at a yeshiva in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank, had been kidnapped overnight. By whom is yet unknown; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists it was the Palestinian group Hamas, Israeli intelligence officials say it was likely a few local Palestinians acting on their own. Hamas has denied responsibility.

In a sense, it matters a great deal who did this; Hamas is both an anti-Israel terrorist group and a political party that participates in official governance, so if it ordered this kidnapping it could set back peace talks badly. But in another sense it hardly matters at all, because this uncertainty has not prevented Israel from escalating the conflict aggressively.

 

Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

 

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